Polishing pad assembly for a glass polishing head



Jan. 12, 1965 H. G. HENCKEN 3,164,855

POLISHING PAD ASSEMBLY FOR A GLASS POLISHING HEAD Filed Aug. 1. 1960 \NVENTOR HAROLD G HENCKEN ORNEYS United States Patent.

3,164,855 PGLISHING P ASSEMBLY FOR A GLAS POLKSHHNG HEAD Harold G. I-Iencken, Greenwich, Conn., assignor to American Felt Company,Glenville, Conn, a corporation of Massachusetts I Filed Aug. 1, 1960, Ser. No. 46,828 1 Claim. (Cl. 15-230.14)

The present invention relates to the art of polishing plate glass, and particularly to new and improved felt polishing pads that are capable of easy and rapid replacement on polishing heads of glass polishing machines.

It is presently customary to employ square shaped felt pads having a size such that an inscribed circle of the square equals the diameter of the round polishing head of a glass polishing machine. The exposed corners of the square felt pad are bent upwardly about the peripheral edge of the head, and a metal band is clamped about these bent-up edges, thereby securely holding the felt pad to the polishing head. Circular felt pads also have been secured to the polishing head by a cementing process employing hot pitch or other similar adhesives.

The bent-up corners of prior known polishing pads provide a point of weakness, and the pads often tear at such corners, rendering them useless long before the normal life of the felt has been consumed. Furthermore, such square pads require a high percentage of unusable 'felt in the bent-up corner portions.

Cementing felt pads directly to the iron polishing head is unsatisfactory because the down time of a polishing machine to effect replacement of sucha pad is excessive. It involves the removal of an adhering pad from a polishing head, the cleaning of the head, the applying of fresh adhesive to the head, and the application of a new felt which requires a predetermined curing time before the polishing machine can be restarted. When it is considered that there are many polishing heads in one machine and that felt replacement usually is necessary to less than the total number of heads at a time, it becomes apparent that rapid replacement of felts is an essential requirement.

It has been proposed in application Serial No. 46,766, filed August 1, 1960, in the name of Joseph A. Kenny now abandoned and now embodied in continuation-impart Serial No. 246,795, filed December 24, 1962 to provide felt pad supporting members that are capable of rapid and easy replacement to heads of glass polishing machines by various attaching means. The supporting members for the felt pads in those applications include plate and cap-shaped metallic or non-metallic members having a plane surface to which may be laminated by an adhesive, felt pads having substantially the same area as that of the plane surface of the members. The supporting members may be made of semi-rigid plastic such as the thermoplastic materials, polyethylene, styrene polymers and copolymers, vinyls, acrylics, cellulosics and the like. They may also be molded from resins, reinforced with pulp, paper or fibers such as glass, cotton, sisal and the like in either woven or non-woven form. Also, they may be made from pressed fiber board known as Masonite.

The felt pads may be made of a blend of cattle hair and wool, or any of the other well known felting blends of hair. They may be laminated or cemented to the plane surface of the supporting member by a layer of an appropriate cement, such as polystyrene cement or by applying acetone to a surface of the plastic supporting member, thereby producing a tacky adhesive condition to which the pads will adhere.

An object ofthis invention is to provide segmentally shaped or individually shaped felt polishing pads to a supporting member so as to provide open grooves between the segments on the supporting member.

I Patented Jan. 12, 1965 A further object of this invention is to provide an improved polishing disk for distribution of the rouge or polishing compound and to reduce waste of felt.

In one aspect, the invention provides a polishing pad assembly for a glass polishing head in which there is a non-metallic support member having an upstanding peripheral flange and which is removably attachable to the polishing head so that the upstanding flanges meet with the peripheral surfaces of the head. The support member has an outer plain surfaceon which there is disposed a variety of segmentally shaped felt pads adhesively bonded to the plain surface to provide open grooves therebetween.

The above, other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following specification and accompanying drawing which is merely exemplary.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a sectional elevational view of a polishing head of a glass polishing machine to which the present invention has been applied;

FIG. 2 is a sectional elevation view of a pad supporting member;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a segmentally shaped felt pad member; and

FIG. 4 is a bottom view of FIG. 1.

Referring to the drawings, a polishing head 10 of a glass polishing machine may be made of cast iron and may have a spindle 11 to which there is attached a cylindrical disc 12. The outer peripheral edge 13 is of a substantial extent to receive a polishing pad assembly 14. Normally, the disc 12 may be about 27 inches in diameter and 3 inches thick and is caused to slowly revolve while 7 moving orbitally in a circle of about 2 feet in diameter.

The polishing pad assembly 14 comprises a plurality of segmentally shaped felt pads 17 arranged in a circular pattern on a cup shaped pad supporting member 18, the member being removably attached to the polishing head 10.

Referring to FIG. 3, segmentally shaped felt pads 17 may be cut from felting material made from a blend of cattle hair and wool, or any of the other well known felting blends of hair.

Referring to FIG. 2, the cap-shaped pad supporting member 18 for attaching to the disc 12 may include a plane outer surface 19 to which a circular wall 20 may be integrally attached. The member 18 may be made from any substantially rigid material having appropriate tensile and impact strength, such as the thermoplastic materials, polyethylene, styrene polymers and copolymers, vinyls, acrylics, cellulosics and the like. from resins, reinforced with pulp, paper or fibers such as glass, cotton, sisal and the like in either woven or nonwoven form. Also, it may be made from pressed fiber board known as Masonite. The inner diameter of the wall 20 may be such as to receive the head of a glass polishing machine.

The invention comprises a plurality of segmentally shaped felt pads 17, an adhesive coating such as polystyrene cement or acetone to provide open grooves between the segments 17. The resulting assembly is a felt pad and supporting member that can be removably attached with facility to the disc or head 10 of a glass polishing machine in the manner disclosed above.

It is to be understood that segmentally shaped includes segments, circles, or other equivalent sub-multiples of original sheet in which the felt was manufactured. Although the various features of the new and improved method and apparatus have been shown and described in detail to fully disclose one embodiment of the invention, it will be evident that changes may be made in such details and certain features may be used without others without departing from the principles of the invention.

It may also be molded What is claimed is:

A polishing pad assembly for a glass polishing head comprising a non-metallic support member having an upstanding peripheral flange removably attachable to said head such that said upstanding peripheral flange mates 5 with the peripheral surface of said head and including an outer plane surface and a plurality of segmentally shaped felt pads adhesively bonded to said plane surface to provide open grooves therebetween.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,928,314 Koss Sept. 26, 1933 2,136,022 Rossow Nov. 8, 1938 2,169,063 Wensley et a1. Aug. 8, 1939 2,178,835 Hudson Nov. 7, 1939 Walker May 13, 1941 Benner Feb. 3, 1942 Moore Nov. 16, 1943 Woolurns Sept. 18, 1950 Kurkjian May 13, 1952 Zobel Apr. 6, 1954 Osenberg Mar. 11, 1958 Seal July 15, 1958 Stotler July 21, 1959 Hall et al Oct. 6, 1959 Welch Aug. 30, 1960 Cusick et al July 3, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain Sept. 4, 1946 Italy Apr. 1, 1950 

